From the House of Stained Glass
by aFallensrequiem
Summary: "People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within." Perhaps it was fate that brought her to the man on the horse, but Ellie could never have predicted the path her life would take when she chose to follow him.
1. Chapter 1

**(Quote in summary is by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross)**

**Re-start after my last failed attempt when I wasn't happy with the direction I was letting my story take me. Trashed that idea and started anew. I realize I have a horrible track record for actually updating and continuing my thought processes, but I do like to write when the mood strikes me and share what I produce. This idea of mine was actually original, but got lost in the mix when I started my last - and now scrapped - story.**

**Essentially this will follow the television show from the get-go with an added character of my own. The added character will toy with the plot a bit and add a few (hopefully) interesting twists and turns, but all of our favourite characters will still be there and familiar scenes will play out.**

**Now, without further ado, I hope you enjoy. Feel free to leave any thoughts and comments!**

* * *

_Pain. A streak of blinding, white-hot pain seared its way through her system, momentarily leaving her breathless. Time seemed to stand still, as her mind fought to process what was happening. Her vision immediately darkened with the force of the blood that pounded in her ears, quickened by her body's reaction and subsequent adrenaline surge. Then without warning she fell back into the normal flow of time and reality and she screamed._

Ellie shot straight up out of sleep, her hands instantly clamping over her mouth, attempting too late to stifle the scream that tore from deep inside of her. She was panting and her brow was bathed in sweat from her dream, causing tendrils of her golden hair to stick stubbornly to her forehead. Ellie hastily wiped a hand across her face, disturbing the sticky tendrils, and scrambled to her feet.

"Stupid," she muttered fiercely to herself, frantically stuffing some of her few belongings into an old, tattered backpack then zipping it up forcefully. She quickly rolled the flattened sleeping bag she had been using and secured it to the bottom of the backpack with string. Ellie deftly swung the pack onto her back as she simultaneously pressed herself to where the wall met the window. She took a single deep breath to calm herself, and then peered out the window into the early morning gloom, making sure she kept out of sight as much as possible.

The small, concrete utility shelter Ellie had stumbled across had served as the perfect shelter from an impromptu rain shower the evening before. Just as the rain had begun to fall, Ellie had broken through the woods into the clearing and spotted the square structure just to her left. She had weighed her two options quickly in her mind: keep moving and suffer through the rain in search of something else or bed down early for the night and get some much needed rest and respite from the elements. Deciding on the latter a moment later with the aid of a loud clap of thunder, she had hurried to the structure, stopping just short of its door in order to draw out her pistol. Checking once to ensure it was properly loaded, she'd held it before her, threw open the door, and quickly entered. The building had been empty, save the winding mess of utility pipes and meters against a far wall. Their humming had ceased some time ago and a thin film of dust covered the knobs. After firmly closing and locking the door behind her, she had laid out her sleeping bag on the dingy concrete floor and gone to sleep almost the moment her head touched the floor.

Ellie's eyes scanned the line of trees located only a hundred feet away, visible from the tiny window. The rain had long since stopped, but while Ellie was thankful for clearer weather, she worried her scream might draw some unwanted attention. So far, so good. The hazy morning was still quite dim. _Probably only 6 am, or so_, Ellie calculated after a quick glance to the watch she wore on her right wrist. It had stopped working weeks ago, but force of habit kept her from discarding it completely, and she found herself glancing at it every now and then in an attempt to see the time.

Ellie waited a minute longer, barely breathing as her eyes flickered from left to right, scanning and searching. Finally satisfied no one – _or no thing_ – had heard her, she tightened the straps to her backpack and placed a hand on the pistol case at her right hip, physically checking for the pistol it contained. She fiddled with the keffiyeh(1) she wore around her neck as she rested her hand lightly on the door handle, mentally preparing herself to exit the building. The keffiyeh's black and cream checkered pattern showed its age and use through the obvious fading and tears in the fabric, but the worn scarf held sentimental value for Ellie, and so she did her best to keep it clean and in one piece. Touching the softly worn fabric helped further put her mind at ease and she took a deep, mind-cleansing breath.

The door knob turned smoothly in her hand and the creaking of the metal door as it slowly swung inward cut through the silent morning air. Ellie winced at the sound, cursing silently for the noise. She stepped through the door quickly, one hand on her holster, ready to draw her weapon at a moment's notice. But the clearing was empty as she had observed and once again silent. Ellie immediately struck out across the wide expanse of tall grass, urging her tired legs onward towards their destination.

* * *

"Damnit," Ellie swore as she tilted the paper map in her hands left then right, cocking her head the opposite way each time. She gave a frustrated groan and messily folded the map back up and jammed it into her open backpack where it sat at her feet. Ellie had never been good with directions, even in this age of computers literally reading them to you turn-by-turn. Somehow she had always found herself miles in the opposite direction or circling around her objective cluelessly. So now that the world had gone to hell and most of modern technology with it, Ellie was left with an outdated paper map found in a backwoods convenience store.

She knew she was still headed in the correct general direction, since her surroundings were becoming less wooded and more inhabited – once by the living, but now by the dead. Ellie knew that traveling straight towards such a heavily populated area like Atlanta was dangerous – maybe even reckless and stupid – but she had to get to the CDC. If anyone knew what was going on, someone there would. It was that one, insistent hope that kept her will to live alive and enabled her to keep from "checking out" early. But once again, for what had to be the thousandth time in her nearly thirty years, Ellie found herself lost.

Ellie pressed forward towards the direction she felt was right, and felt more assured as the houses grew in number and small businesses followed by larger businesses began appearing. She was getting closer. But with the feeling of assurance also came the deep, biting fear of who – _or what_ – she might encounter. She had been astonishingly lucky the past week to have only encountered a handful of the dead, probably because she had done most of her traveling through heavily wooded areas away from civilization's ruins. But now in the surrounding suburbs of Atlanta, Ellie was forced to travel quickly and silently, flitting from cover to cover as she made her way through the neighbourhoods.

Another stark difference between the past week and her current travel conditions were the number of bodies she came across. And though it had been months since the start of this nightmare she currently found herself in, the sight of such devastation never failed to shock her. The streets she ran down were strewn with bodies: the young, the old, women, and children. The dead did not discriminate. Limbs were missing on many, chunks taken out of all; some had their flesh eaten away so that stark, white bone was exposed to the hot, Georgian sun. Ellie ran past the bodies, trying hard not to return the blank stares from the upturned faces she sped past. As she turned the corner of the street she was on, Ellie stopped so suddenly, her feet slipped on the loose gravel and she almost lost her balance.

The man – or thing that had once been a man – turned its gore streaked face towards her and growled. The prospect of a live meal versus the long dead one it was currently gorging itself on made the dead man rise unsteadily to its feet and begin shambling towards her. Its arms were outstretched, reaching and grabbing at the air in Ellie's direction; its lust for her flesh evident in its excited moans. Ellie forcefully pushed down the overwhelming feeling of revulsion that rose in her as the dead man slowly came towards her. She decided against firing her pistol while in such a once-heavily populated area, and drew a menacingly sharp 6 inch blade from its sheath attached to her right calf. With one quick movement, Ellie drew herself within arm's reach of the dead man and buried her knife squarely between its eyes. She withdrew the blade just as quickly and bent to wipe it on the dingy clothing of the collapsed monster before re-sheathing it.

Ellie stared down at the dead _thing _that lay at her feet, a twisted heap of limbs, blood, and ragged flesh. Before she could stop herself, Ellie emptied her stomach of the few contents it held on a patch of nearby grass by a light post. Her stomach acid burned her throat and the mere sensation caused her to gag again and dry heave. Bent over with her hands on her knees supporting her weight, Ellie waited until she no longer felt the urge to purge her stomach before slowly straightening. She slowly took a deep breath. No matter how many times she had been forced to dispatch one of the once living, it never got any easier, and she always found herself struggling to compose herself afterwards.

Just as Ellie went to continue on her way, a strange sound caught her attention. She froze and strained her ears for the sound. For a moment she heard nothing but the soft breeze whispering through the overhanging branches of an oak tree, then it came to her again. It was a rhythmic sound of something hard on pavement and as she listened, it slowly but steadily grew louder. Ellie crept further down the street trying to follow the sound and made an abrupt right turn down a second street when she found it definitely was coming from that direction.

Directly ahead of her lay a highway overpass, exit and entrance ramps flowing onto and away from the street Ellie silently ran down. A large sign on the side of the overpass indicated a right turn lane for merging onto I-85. Ellie immediately recognized highway 85 as the one she had been trying to navigate towards and briefly congratulated herself mentally on getting to where she needed to be … even if she hadn't taken the most direct route.

The sound Ellie had been tracking grew louder still as she approached the highway, but its decreased distance did not help her identify it anymore than when she had first heard it. Ellie crouched behind the burned husk of a Dodge minivan that sat close to the exit ramp off the highway and strained her neck over its roof just enough to see past it, but in a way she could remain hidden. Suddenly the source of the sound came into view.

A man on a horse rode slowly down the inbound lanes of the highway towards the heart of Atlanta. His upper body swaying with the gentle rhythm of the horse's movements and the horse's bobbing head were visible to Ellie from over the concrete barriers that lined the highway. The sight made Ellie pause at the momentary bizarreness of what she was seeing. She would have laughed had the situation been any different, but the need for silence stifled the reaction immediately and she could only stare. Ellie had come across various survivors during her trek from up north, but each and all had appeared bedraggled and exhausted; lines of fear and sadness etched plainly into their faces. There was something different about this man, however. His almost relaxed posture and the fact he was casually riding a horse straight into the heart of the city made him stand out like a sore thumb in the midst of this apocalypse.

The man on the horse continued down the highway at a steady pace and when it seemed he would disappear from view around a bend, Ellie impulsively decided to follow him. There was something about his appearance that intrigued her and compelled her to learn more about him; to see where he was going and what he would do. Ellie followed behind, silent as a shadow, her heartbeat quickening as the skyscrapers of downtown Atlanta loomed before them, giving no hint as what she should expect next.

* * *

(1) Traditional Arab scarf, that has now become quite common in today's fashion.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for the reviews MunkieMagic and Leyshla Gisel! Glad you've enjoyed what I've written thus far and hope you like this second chapter, as well. On a fairly good roll at this point, and hope to keep it going. New episode in T minus 24 hours!**

**Leave some thoughts after the beep!**

* * *

Ellie waited until she heard the sound of the horse's hooves turn the corner before pushing herself away from the wall she leaned on and ran to her next hiding spot. She had been following the man for what seemed like an eternity, but could only really have been no more than ten minutes. Keeping silent and hidden, moving in quick and sporadic spurts, definitely didn't help time pass more quickly. With each passing second, Ellie's anxiety also increased.

When they had passed the first multi-story building into what could officially be called downtown Atlanta, Ellie began to consider she had made a mistake of deciding to the follow the man. The tall buildings around her blocked out large portions of the sky and mild claustrophobia crept into Ellie's mind. She had grown so accustomed to traveling through the woods and rural back roads, only occasionally choosing to explore the small towns she came across, usually when her food supply was dangerously low. Now being in the heart of such a large city and knowing full well what it most likely contained all of her own choice caused her to rethink her sanity. Her heart thudded loudly in her ears as she peered around the corner of the building at the back of the man as he continued his journey towards the center of the city.

_Where was he going? What did he think he would find?_ She queried silently, confusion creasing her brow. Ellie took a deep breath in an effort to slow her heart rate to a more reasonable speed. Her hearing cleared and she breathed a silent sigh of relief that the city remained silent, though its tomb-like quiet unnerved her to the core.

A noise broke the silence. At first Ellie thought she was hearing her own heartbeat because of how soft and quiet it was. But as it grew louder, she knew she was not alone in hearing it and was coming from the sky. The man yanked on the reins of the horse to stop it and turned his face quickly towards the sky, looking around. He seemed to spot something ahead of him, as he suddenly spurred the horse into action with a yell, his heels digging into the horse's flanks. Ellie shot forward after him her knees immediately protesting the sudden exertion. But as she moved, she realized quickly she would never catch the galloping horse. She slowed until she came to stand next to a tank that sat stoically in the middle of the street, bodies of the dead surrounding and covering it. Ellie leaned her weight into the tank through a hand placed on the massive tire treads and took a moment to catch her breath, closing her eyes and rubbing her forehead with the opposite hand.

A headache was threatening to overtake her head and she knew it was due to dehydration. The adrenaline running through her veins from the sudden speed burst definitely wasn't helping the throbbing dissipate. Perhaps it was for the better, losing pace with the horse. She had her plan she had to stick to and herself to look out for. Case in point she was almost out of supplies, down now to an expired granola bar and quarter of a bottle of water when it came to food. She didn't even know who this man was and for all she knew, he could-

The scream that came from the horse tore through the air and snapped Ellie out of her thoughts. Her eyes flew open and her head shot up in the time to see the horse rear up, the man waving his arms wildly in attempt to subdue the horse with its reins. A new sound met Ellie's ears: groaning.

"Oh shit!" she swore, her heart immediately dropping into her stomach. Ellie whipped around with every intention to flee the city from the direction she had entered, but was halted immediately by the few dozen dead that shambled towards her, already nearly to her. She had been so concentrated on the damn man she had let her guard down and let these _freaks_ catch her unawares. There was no way she could fight through their ranks and get out in one piece. Ellie quickly examined her surroundings, desperation mounting as the distance between her and the dead lessened as quickly as the number of options she had available. A particularly loud groan that sounded nearly on top of her made Ellie's decision for her. She instinctively threw a leg on top of the tank's tires and scrambled to the top. She pushed the body of a dead soldier off of the hatch and yanked it open, nearly toppling off the tank with the effort. Right before she lowered herself inside, the man on the horse came speeding back towards her, followed closely by a horde. His terrified face was the last thing Ellie saw before slamming the hatch shut above her head.

The sudden muffled silence inside the tank was at once overwhelming. The interior was dimly lit and the air stagnant. Ellie crouched and eased herself slowly to a sitting position against the wall, her hands out to her sides as she scooted backwards. When her right hand caught on something that moved with her momentum, she stifled a scream and snatched it to her chest as if she had been burned. The corpse of a soldier sat silently against the wall next to her, his eyes blank and staring. He looked to have been dead for some time, as his skin had lost its colour and patches had begun to fall away. She scooted quickly away by a foot and stared at him hesitantly for a moment. The soldier remained still.

Gunshots rang from outside, each closer than the next. Ellie pressed her ear to the side of the tank in an effort to better hear what was going on outside. She could hear the groaning of the dead even louder, even from inside the thick metal walls. Something hit the side of the tank causing Ellie to jump back from the wall. There was a scrabbling sound, and more bumps sounded now from underneath her. She realized that someone, or some thing, was underneath the tank. Gunshots sounded from below her, their close proximity sending vibrations through the metal.

_The man! He was probably trapped_, she thought. There was no way she could help him. She was just as trapped as he. Unbidden tears flooded her eyes, threatening to spill over. She cursed her curiosity for getting her into this mess and now she was going to be witness to another person's demise. Ellie bowed her head and pushed her hands up over her hairline to the back of her neck, tears now spilling down her cheeks. In the midst of her despair, she froze. Directly before her was a handle to a hatch in the floor of the tank. The tiny glimmer of hope that bloomed in her chest was all she needed. Ellie leapt forward, grasped the handle, and yanked upwards.

* * *

Rick looked to his front and then his rear before turning to his front again. He was completely surrounded by these – _monsters _– their grasping, outstretched hands nearly reaching him. As he watched the dead began crawling at him, decayed skin sloughing off on the rough pavement with every movement. A brown haired woman, alive only some time ago, dragged herself towards him. His stomach instinctively turned as he heard the exposed bone of a knee cap scraping on the asphalt as she moved closer. Rick pointed his gun and shot once, hitting her directly between the eyes. He shot off a few more rounds, hitting forehead after forehead of those reaching for him.

He paused, his breath coming faster as fear rose painfully in his throat. There were too many. Rick could barely see nearby buildings from his low vantage point as the horde surrounding the tank was so thick. Momentary clarity overcame Rick's mind as he watched the dead come closer. This was it. He had come so far, tried so hard to find his family. He would die not knowing whether they survived or suffered a fate similar to what he was facing. Rick turned onto his back and closed his eyes as grief washed over him. He brought his pistol to his head.

"Lori, Carl, I'm sorry," he murmured, tightening his finger on the trigger.

"Wait!" A feminine voice rang out. Rick's eyes opened to the sound and locked with the mismatched pair that peered down at him. The woman crouched inside the tank directly above him. She held a slender arm out towards him, the fingers open, beckoning him to take them. Rick automatically forgot his grief and grabbed the offered hand, throwing his body weight upwards and into the opening above. The woman slammed the hatch door shut the moment he was through and she sat down heavily on top of it, almost as if her added weight would further keep out intruders. Both survivors sat panting and studying each other for nearly a minute, each gathering their wits about them.

The woman who sat before Rick was slender, but he could tell by her toned arms, she packed a lot more power than he could see from the surface. She was dirty – filthy probably a more accurate description. At some point recently she had tried to put some effort into cleaning herself though, evident by a face far cleaner than her clothes, even with the stray dirty smudge. Her golden hair, tied in a high ponytail that rested over her shoulder, too looked to have been washed recently. But what had caught Rick's attention initially and continued to captivate him were her eyes: blue and green stared back at him. Her left eye was a sparkling sky blue, while her left a clear, mossy green. Framed by long, delicate lashes, they were easily the most striking feature he had ever seen on another person.

"Are you ok?" the woman asked, finally breaking their shared silence. Her voice was soft and lilting, an accent different from the familiar Southern one Rick was so accustomed to. Rick nodded. "You haven't been bit or anything?"

"No," Rick answered. The woman nodded in satisfaction.

"I'm Ellie," she offered, holding out her hand to him once again. Rick took her hand and squeezed it once before releasing it.

"Rick Grimes," he returned. A smiled played on Ellie's lips as she looked him up and down once.

"Should I be calling you Officer Grimes?" she asked, motioning towards the badge he wore on his shirt pocket. He briefly shared her smile.

"Deputy, actually. But really, just Rick."

"Well all righty, Just Rick. Now what?" Rick was stumped at her question and he could tell by her expression, she had no idea what came next either. He looked around himself and started briefly at the dead soldier seated directly behind him.

"Don't worry, he's dead. Er- completely dead. Hasn't moved since I've been in here," Ellie assured. Rick studied the soldier for a moment and spotted the pistol still in its holster at the dead man's hip. He reached forward and unhooked it. As he pulled away, the dead man suddenly animated and lunged for Rick, mouth gaping and arms reaching. Ellie shouted in surprise and Rick reacted automatically by firing the pistol he had just taken once in the soldier's face. The blast was literally deafening and both Rick and Ellie doubled over, clapping their hands to their ears.

"You idiot!" Ellie snapped, once the ringing in her head had subsided enough for her to think clearly. If she had suspected an oncoming headache before, there was no doubt at this point that it had arrived. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingers. Rick looked at her apologetically and seemed about to say something before the tank radio crackled to life.

"Hey you. Dumbasses. Yea, you two in the tank. Cozy in there?"


End file.
